Babajide Williams
Operatives of the Ogun State Police Command arrested one of the members of a fleeing kidnap gang suspect, Usman Aliyu, on 14 December 2022 following a search and combing of Onigbedu Forest in the Ewekoro Local Government Area.
Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspect was arrested following information received by policemen at Ewekoro divisional headquarters that Aliyu was sighted taking a commercial motorcycle at Onigbedu area moving towards Papalanto en route Lagos.
He added that upon the information, the DPO Ewekoro division, CSP Sunday Opebiyi, quickly mobilized his men on-stop-and-search operation along that road and the suspect was subsequently identified and arrested.
He said: “On interrogation, he confessed to being a member of the kidnap gang, whose two members were earlier arrested and a victim rescued from them.
“He informed the police that they were six in number and that when two amongst them were apprehended, the other members ran in different directions in the forest. But since policemen are not relenting in searching for them in the bush, he decided to come out and take a commercial motorcycle out of that vicinity.
“He confessed further that it was their gang that was responsible for the kidnap of one Owolabi Abiodun and one Fakorede Kazeem at Kipe village, Idi ori Abeokuta on the 7th of October 2022, but Fakorede Kazeem was killed by the gang because he was unable to walk fast while they were being taken away in the bush.
“The gang according to him also kidnapped the duo of Adekunle Esther 10 years old and Adekunle Adebayo 15 years old at Olomowewe Street, rounder, Abeokuta on the 10th of October 2022.
“He confessed further that, on the 19th of October 2022, the gang kidnapped one Mrs Famurewa at Abule Ijaye Soyooye Abeokuta at the entrance of their house after killing her 65 years old husband, one Festus Famurewa and later released the wife after collecting ransom.”
According to him, also, on the 16th of November 2022, the duo of Olatunji Azeez and Osoba Moroof were kidnapped by the same gang at Olujobi town Itori but were later set free after collecting ransom.
Oyeyemi noted that all the victims including the two kids have come forward to identify the suspects as those who abducted them.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, who praised members of the public for supporting the police by giving them necessary information has given assurance that other members of the gang will be fished out wherever they might be, as the Command will make the state unconducive for them to operate.